The present invention relates to a surface condition monitoring apparatus including a transparent member, a transmission unit including a transmitter that transmits electromagnetic waves from one side of the transparent member toward the other side, and a reception unit including a receiver that detects the electromagnetic waves that enter the one side of the transparent member from the other side, and to a surface condition monitoring apparatus favorable for detecting a state and level of snow coverage and freeze at an upper portion of the transparent member.
It is important to monitor ice accretion/snow accretion states of road surfaces and runway surfaces (hereinafter, referred to as “road surfaces”) in terms of safety management.
Therefore, a technology of measuring a depth of snow coverage on a road surface using a reflection of ultrasonic waves from outside is well known, and a technology of measuring a state of snow coverage and the like using external microwaves is well known.
However, in a case of setting a monitoring apparatus outside (above etc.), securing of a setting space, an influence of a natural environment (snow, rain, wind, etc.) on the monitoring apparatus, a breakage of the monitoring apparatus itself due to collisions of external foreign materials and the like become a problem.
Further, due to an influence on safeties of takeoff and landing of aircrafts regarding airport runways, there is a large restriction in setting the monitoring apparatus itself above the runway or a periphery thereof.
Furthermore, also in monitoring an ice accretion/snow accretion state of a plane surface of an aircraft, it is extremely difficult to set the monitoring apparatus outside the plane in terms of airworthiness of aircrafts.
In this regard, there is known a monitoring apparatus that has solved the problem of setting a monitoring apparatus outside by burying, inside a road surface or structure, a transmission apparatus for electromagnetic waves including light while enabling the electromagnetic waves including light to be transmitted toward the surface, and setting a reception apparatus for detecting scattered waves of electromagnetic waves near the transmission apparatus buried inside the road surface or structure (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 9-113636 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Literature 1), Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 10-267837 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Literature 2), and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-258554 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Literature 3)).